BELLEVILLE – Thanks to Mikayla Brennan the Loyalist Lancers women’s basketball team is headed to the playoffs.

She scored almost half the points in her teams 55-51 victory over Durham College on Feb. 21.

“Last year we weren’t very strong so its nice coming in this year with only a few players who haven’t played before in the OCAA. So its nice that we can play as a team and be winning too.” said Brennan.

The Ontario Colleges Athletic Association has recognized Brennan for the second time in her college basketball career. She was named rookie of the year last year, and after the most recent win against Durham she was an OCAA player of the week.

“This year I haven’t been playing as well as I could have and in the last few games I’ve started playing the way I know I can. Its good to be recognized when everyone else sees that I guess,” she said.

Without Brennan the women’s basketball season would be over.

“Mikayla is one of our strongest team leaders and she leads by example, said head coach Jamie McCourt. “She has a very strong work ethic and has a real passion for basketball. Her high skill level is an asset to our team and she has the ability to change the outcome of any game. ”

Loyalist Lady Lancers‘ move on in their basketball season as they play Niagara this Saturday to earn a spot in provincials.

BELLEVILLE – 15-year-old Brady Gilmour is the captain of the Quinte Red Devils Minor Midget AAA hockey team. He has been on the scouts’ radar for years because of his impressive play, but there is much more to this young star. Qnet’s Riley Maracle has the story.

BELLEVILLE – The president of a local girl’s hockey association says the league is so small that it is easy to monitor physical contact between coaches and players on the bench.

This comment comes after a girl’s hockey league in Toronto recently imposed a ban on physical contact between coaches and players on the bench after a complaint was made about a congratulatory gesture from a volunteer parent.

The girl’s minor hockey association in Belleville is small, with around 300 members, Lisa Neill, vice president of the Belleville Bearcats, said.

“For us, it’s a little bit easier to manage. Everybody knows each other – they go to school together, they work together,” she said.

Neill was comparing the local league to the Leaside Wildcats in Toronto, where the physical contact ban originated. The Toronto league is almost four-times larger than Belleville’s, she said.

A former coach of the Bearcats said coaches have to know the difference between appropriate and inappropriate contact with players.

“A pat on the helmet – I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. A pat on the shoulder telling them they’ve done a good job – I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that,” he said. But a pat on the behind, which is not uncommon in sports, is considered inappropriate, he added.

There are other ways of being congratulatory, the former coach said.

“You can still be verbal and tell (players) they’ve done a good job, or that type of thing.”

The coach declined to give his name because he is no longer associated with the league.

The association prohibits harassment, abuse, bullying and misconduct. The policy applies to coaches, players, volunteers, and anyone involved with the association.

Each of the volunteer coaches must follow a code of conduct, along with general ethics and skills, which are taught in coaching and training programs before the start of the season. They must also go through a 10-step screening process that includes a police check, Fran Rider, the president of the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association, said.

But, leagues are permitted to be more restrictive than the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association policies, she said.

“Today’s society is very very complex. It is not simple to run an organization anymore. So that’s why it’s really critical the associations take these policies and make sure they are being at least as restrictive, not less restrictive, taking the needs of the kids into account from both their physical and emotional well being,” she said.

The Belleville Bearcats don’t see further restrictions to be necessary at this point, Neill said.

“Well I mean it’s sad the (Leaside) coaches have to police themselves in that manner,” she said.

Congratulatory pats on the back are usually in order after winning a tough game, but now the coaches will have to hold back, she added.

It comes down to coaches being aware of their players’ individual backgrounds, Rider said. Sometimes a traditional tap on the shoulder to signal to a player it’s their shift on the ice might have different meanings among players.

“Often times, it’s treating all the children equitably, but sometimes there’s a child that comes into the program with a different background than others and some of them perceive contact in different ways,” she said. “There’s a responsibility that you don’t necessarily treat every child identically, but you do take into consideration the needs and perceptions of the individual kids. That is what is so important.”

Neill echoed Rider’s sentiments: “You have to know your audience and their comfort level; the coaches would really have to know their players.”

One of the past players had Asperger’s Syndrome, Neill said. Physical contact was something that might have made them uncomfortable, so all of the coaches were made aware of this in advance to act accordingly.

Both the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association and the local league have the players’ best interest in mind, each president said.

Since the ban of physical contact between coaches and players in the Leaside league made headlines, the president of the association, Jennifer Smith, has issued a clarification on their website stating that the ban is only a guideline.

Two of the best high school hockey teams in Quinte faced off on Thursday morning. The 8-0 Centennial Chargers took on the 6-1 St. Theresa Titans. Both teams were kept off of the scoreboard as the game ended in a tie. See all of the highlights here.

]]>BELLEVILLE – The Belleville Bulls are in the middle of a battle to clinch a spot in the Ontario Hockey League playoffs. With 19 games left in the regular season, the team is in a tight race. QNet News reporter Riley Maracle spoke with the team about the fight for the postseason.

A battle of local high school hockey powerhouses is happening this week. The 7-0 Centennial Chargers take on the 6-1 St. Theresa Titans in a showdown of the best teams in the Quinte area this Thursday morning.

Players from both sides know how much this game means to their teams’ successful seasons.

Beau Tolls from the Titans squad says the game will live up to the hype around town.

“They have a really good team, but so do we. Hopefully it will be a good, close, tough game,” Tolls said.

He says he knows exactly what the Titans are up against. It’s going to take a whole team effort to come out on top, he said.

“We are going to have to use everything we have against them. We’re going to have to give it our all and not give up.”

Titans forward Dawson Whyte says although the Titans are underdogs, the Chargers will have their hands full.

“We have a hard-hitting forecheck, we have solid defence, we have a pretty good goalie, both backup and starter. We just have to bring our A-game,” Whyte said.

On the other side of the ice, Chargers captain Nicholas Hoey says he is leaving it all on the ice on Thursday morning.

“I’m going to give it my all, leave nothing behind. I’m going to do what I can to make the team succeed. I’ll do whatever it takes,” Hoey said.

He has only been playing varsity hockey for two years, but says this matchup has become a new rivalry.

“I think this is a new battle of the best.”

Puck drop is at 9:15 a.m. QNet News will have extensive coverage of the game.

BELLEVILLE – Kingston has had a rich history in hosting important sporting championships and events, and the city is trying to honour that by making Kingston a top sports tourism destination.

The city has played host to the 2013 Scotties Tournament of Hearts women’s national curling championships, 2014 World Junior Hockey exhibition games and hockey camps, and this past January, the 2015 Canadian Skate Nationals, which brought in over 250 athletes to that event alone.

“The last 10 years have really shaped Kingston’s sport tourism industry,” said Brandon Pickard, sport tourism development officer for Tourism Kingston. “We’ve really became more formalized in more recent years, where we can target and attract events that come to the city.”

Pickard said the city of Kingston has been working hard to bring in different sporting events from around the province, country and the world.

“There is no other city like us in Canada that is putting out so many international and national world championships,” he said.

Having a sport tourism strategy in place is important for events to make money and to be economically feasible for host cities, says sport tourism expert Marijke Taks, a professor in the kinesiology department at the University of Windsor.

“Cities can benefit from sports tourism if strategically planned,” she said.

Taks says that there is a tremendous amount of planning when it comes to event planning on a sport level. Resources the event may need, infrastructure, facilities and repairs are aspects that cities must take into consideration before hosting a sporting event, she said.

“That means you need an event portfolio, and you need to carefully select the events, when you host them, take into the account the resources that they need, and then come up with a strategic plan for one or five years, where you have a wide variety of different kinds of events smaller scale, medium size. And if you plan it well, I think a city can thrive on sport tourism,” said Taks.

Kingston has a long history of national and international sporting events based on the water. Famously, in 1976 it held sailing events at the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour as part of the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics.

This year, the DN World Cup Ice Yachting competition was also held on the St. Lawrence River. The city is quickly turning into a four-season sailing sport destination, says Pickard.

As for what is next, he says he is looking at new sports and events to bring to the area. There are a number of provincial championships planned for next year in cross-country running and basketball, but the city is always looking to diversify.

“We have a great BMX track, one of the top 10 in North America, and (we are) trying to get more events on that track and bring in more people into the city to come and discovering our area,” said Pickard.

BELLEVILLE – A local junior curling team placed eighth overall at a national curling tournament last week.

Team Calwell represented Ontario at the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Junior curling competition in Corner Brook, N.L., where it made it into the final round of round-robin play.

Loyalist students Mac and Morgan Calwell make up half of Team Calwell, which plays out of Belleville’s Quinte Curling Club. They started their journey to the national competition back in November when they won the zone championship. Later they won at regionals, and then the provincial title last month.

Last week they traveled to Corner Brook, where they played 12 games against teams from across the country.

The tournament featured two round robins, where the top four teams from the first round advanced to the final round.

The competition began Jan. 24, when the Calwells defeated Team Nunavut 16-3.

During first round-robin play, with two wins and four losses, Team Calwell was tied for fourth with two other teams: Team Newfoundland and Labrador, and Team Nova Scotia.

The team played in a tiebreaker against Nova Scotia and managed to make it into the playoff round.

In the men’s championship final, Team Ontario was knocked out with three losses against Alberta, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan. The Calwells finished in eighth overall, with two wins and eight losses.

Team Manitoba won the tournament on Feb. 1., taking the title for the second consecutive time. With the victory, Team Manitoba will go on to become Team Canada at the world junior championships in Estonia later this month.

BELLEVILLE – St. Theresa’s basketball player, Jarred Callahan, stole the spotlight at Wednesday’s junior boys all-star game with an 18-point night that led his team to victory.

Callahan, 15, was all over the court in the annual game held at Centennial Secondary School in Belleville. Callahan’s effort led Team (Bill) Miller to a 70-55 win over Team (Ken) Smith.

The teams were made up of the 12 schools in the Bay of Quinte area and named after local basketball coach legends. Coaches from each school selected two of their top players to send to the all-star game.

Pink in the Rink is a one-night event in which the hosting team wears pink jerseys. During the game, fans will be able to place bids on jerseys worn that night. After the game, Trenton players will be autographing their jerseys and will pose for pictures with the highest bidders.

This year’s event will look to top last year’s Pink in the Rink night that raised over $11,000. All of the money raised by the team, the fans and the sponsors will go directly to the Canadian Cancer Society.

“None of the proceeds from this particular game go towards our team,” said Golden Hawks assistant general manager and business director John McDonald.

Last year’s game drew roughly 800 people to the Duncan McDonald Memorial Gardens in Trenton. The maximum capacity at the arena is 1,100 and McDonald says he hopes they can get as close as possible to that limit.

“I hope we do, but if we get the same attendance as last year we’ll be happy.”

Team Calwell, based out of the Quinte Curling Club in Belleville, is made up of 19-year-old skip Mac Calwell, his twin brother, Morgan Calwell (second), Kurt Armstrong (vice) and Matt Pretty (lead). The Calwells are both students at Loyalist College.

After advancing to the championship pool Wednesday, Team Calwell lost games against Northern Ontario and Alberta.

Northern Ontario’s team, skipped by Tanner Horgan, toppled Team Calwell 10-4 on Wednesday evening, moving Horgan’s record to three wins and five losses.

On Thursday morning Team Calwell was defeated again, this time by Alberta’s Karsten Sturmay, 8-2. That dropped Calwell’s record to two and six, while Sturmay’s moved up to seven and one.

Team Calwell will look to turn its luck around Thursday afternoon when it takes on New Brunswick’s Rene Comeau.